Fitzgerald

wonderful storytelling set to mood setting music

Richmond Fontaine sings short stories focusing (in this installment) on the emotional nuances of marginal situations, settings and characters. The insights feel authentic and it's classic alt-country minimalist music here. Evocative, emotional and terse, this (and other RF cds) is really really good.

Needed it for a class project, very simple buy.

Willy Vlautin must have spent alot of time in Reno.I like his and the band's music very much,with an alt country sound , and his craggy expressive voice speaking of down and out times that anyone who either has lived in Reno or who might have gambled all their money away, maybe on a drinking binge, or whatever. Either way he really captures the feel of the run down side of the "biggest little city in the world" where I grew up. The cover of the "Fitzgerald" is a pencil sketch of the old Harold's Club Casino on Virginia St. that is long gone, with the wind blowing like it almost always does in this town,a newspaper flying by,cold and 5:30 in the morning after being up all night, and just maybe, no place to go. One of the sketches below the song "disappeared" in the liner notes, is the old Swiss Chalet Bar on east Mill st. Drop in ther sometime whenever you might roll through Reno, and you will really get the feel what Willy is singing about.

Richmond Fontaine's last album Post To Wire must have felt like a real hard-won success for the group following several years of releasing fine alt.country/americana records to little or no notice. Championed by respected UK music magazine Uncut among others, Post To Wire was a gritty, spirited, kick-ass recording that finally saw the group start to get the recognition they deserve.With one proven masterpiece under their belts, principal singer/songwriter Willy Vlautin has looked inward for their latest effort The Fitzgerald, delivering a spare, accoustic set in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen's classic album Nebraska.World domination probably not to follow, but that's just fine with me - The Fitzgerald sounds like the kind of album they've probably always wanted to make. Even moreso than previous albums, the hushed and haunted soundscapes of songs like 'The Warehouse Life' and 'Casino Lights' prove chillingly effective in reflecting the desolation, despair and hopelessness of the downtrodden folks that Richmond Fontaine have consistently written about.It mightn't contain the fireworks that Post To Wire did, but as far as storytelling and late-night listening goes, The Fitzgerald excels. Chalk it up as another masterpiece for this excellent band.

The Fitzgerald is a collection of haunting yet beautiful songs that portray life at some of it's lowest and bleakest moments. The chilling vocals make you personally feel the characters desperation. Right at that moment when it seems that all is lost, it becomes apparent that there may be hope. Hope is all that desperate people have. Sounds best when listened to in the early hours of the morning when the mind starts to wander and you can't quite tell what's real and when you are dreaming. Fans of Bonnie "Prince" Billy or Townes Van Zandt should love this album.

I can't fathom how it's possible that no one has yet reviewed this album. For me, it's easily one of the top 2-3 discs of 2005. A series of portraits of deperation - people living lives haunted by ghosts, in and around the casino town of Reno. Unlike RF's previous albums, there's no pedal steel here, but the musicians do such a wonderful job of offsetting Willy Vlautin's vocals with small touches - the acoustic guitar accompaniment on "Welhorn Yards", the brushes and judicious use of strings on "Disappeared" just to name two. It's an immensely moving album that may draw comparisons to Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska", but I feel that over the long run I may love this one even more than the Boss' masterwork.

I don't know why this hasn't been released in the US yet but for you lot across the water i can reveal that it's a damn classic !It's truly the record that this band have been building towards over the last few years and they just seem to get better and better.Mostly acoustic , beautifully played ,lyrically superb.It's got the feel of a late - night record ,full of beautiful losers and sad luck dames !!I feel that it's their most cohesive effort yet , it all hangs together so well and this band will do for me. Sadly i missed em in Glasgow last week as i had to work but ilook forward to future gigs and more magnificent records like this.PS it's raining here in Scotland (again).......

A classic one! Never gets old!Highly recommended by their songs and (yes) their audio quality.

La copertina color seppia di questo album dice tante cose. Il Fitzgerald è un Hotel che si trova nel deserto americano. Qui si raccontano storie di fatica e di sudore, storie sordide anche. Alcol, gioco d'azzardo, sesso e violenza. Insomma quell'immaginario americano che la cinematografia western ci ha fatto amare e che autori come John Fante, Cormac McCarthy hanno attualizzato La musica che accompagna questi racconti è ovviamente il sound "americano" per eccellenza in cui folk e country sono praticamente la stessa cosa. Ma non è una band semplicemente passatista quella dei Richmond Fontaine. E' una band che rispolvera la tradizione americana con gusto e passione. Come tante altre band moderne dai Willard Grant Conspiracy o i Lambchop. Atmosfere delicate e soffuse, un occhio all'alternative country di band come gli Uncle Tupelo o i Jayhawks ed ecco un album che ha molto da raccontare sia testualmente che musicalmente.Per gli amanti del sound americano più asciutto e genuino questo è un tassello imperdibile.